Mary Kay O’Malley has been the director of the Child and Family Services Clinic and clinical professor since 2002. She obtained her bachelor of arts from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College near Terre Haute, Indiana and her master of arts from UMKC. After working as a social worker for the Missouri Division of Family Services for 13 years, she returned to school and graduated cum laude from the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan., where she was an editor on both the Washburn Law Journal and the ABA Family Law Quarterly.
Following law school, Professor O’Malley was employed as a prosecuting attorney at the Jackson County Family Court for six years. After leaving the court she was a partner with Raith and O’Malley P.C., focusing her practice in the area of juvenile and family law.
Her other teaching assignments include the law school’s Guardian ad Litem Workshop, and she is the legal director of the Kansas City Youth Court program housed at the law school.